What would you want to buy at the seaside?

[CarrotCrusader]

I am sick of the grind and unsupportive managers.

I live in a very busy seaside town. Nine out of twelve months are busy.

One of my passions is cooking and I'd love to have a unit and turn it in to an eatery. Apart from the usual fish and chips, what other food would you like at the seaside? I thought about Spanish tapasand streetfood but perhaps that's too niche. Also thought about hot roast barms with a few roasties as sides. This isn't an affluent town and I'm thinking small premises with no more than six tables, but mostly takeout.

Whatever you do as your "main thing" make sure you also sell hand scooped icecream and have vegan and dairy free options.

I ran a small catering business for years and these are my observations:

1. Don't cook what you love. Make something simple but very well. People pay for quality..e.g. A really good bacon sandwich, a really well made baguette etc.

1. Profit margin is king! This is why pizza places do well. It's a small outlay for a big profit.

1. Doing anything for a living is a quick way to kill the joy. I barely cooked for a year after I closed the business. It had destroyed the love. I'm just starting to get it back now.

1. Running a small business, especially a food business is gruelling. I worked 7 days a week. I cooked on 5 days, did menu planning and paperwork on the Saturday and prepped for the following week on the Sunday. It was relentless. Especially with a family.

1. Good routines are key. Have all your food hygiene paperwork clear and easy to follow. The downside is if you are a creative type then good routines feel like torture after a while.

1. Have great suppliers (ask around). You don't want to be let down at the least minute and have to get to the bloody supermarket to buy bacon for 100. It's a total nightmare.

1. Get great staff by paying well. This has become increasingly difficult. All my staff were from Spain and Poland. They were fantastic, turned up and worked hard. Unfortunately they have pretty much all left around COVID time and I really struggled to find people I could rely on.

Good luck!

She’s not going to make a living selling vegetables to tourists who are on a day out to the beach 🫣

I'd want something easily portable, so I can carry it to my family's chosen beach spot and have a picnic. Maybe "pick up a picnic" with wrap/sandwich/chips&toppings, drink, dessert would work, especially if it's scalable for various different group sizes.

If you are sick of the daily grind I wouldn't be starting your own business, especially catering. How much have you got to invest to start up?

Crab sandwiches.
Anything that can be eaten in a tight wrap (sand can't get in!).
Chips and mayo.
Ice creams.
Long cold drinks that aren't alcohol or fizzy shite.

Look up the cheesy toast shack in St Andrews. It's right by the beach and does well.

A picnic shop?

Lots of small pots / boxes of things people can build their mix and match a beach picnic from. Sandwiches, cold tapas, fruit, sausages, cake bites etc. They could pre order or come in and buy…

it really depends on the demographic. People in Blackpool will want something different from people in Cornwall.
go with pizza. I rarely see pizza in seaside towns.

Slightly fancier version of a sandwich meal deal.
Sandwiches made to order on nice bread, drinks (hot and cold) and crisps (regular brands) - kids don't want hand cooked balsamic vinegar flavour. They want Monster Munch.
Baked potatoes.
Mini fish and chips (like homemade fishfingers)

How on earth do you know that?

I live in Cornwall where we have a chain of Iranian-inspired cafes selling veggie and vegan meals to eat in or take away. They are very popular and the food is delicious. Sneer all you want but not all tourists want fish and chips.

The most successful eatery I've ever seen here has been the pork batch shop. It's been around for 30ish years and aways busy!

A favourite of ours at a seaside town was large, bap type rolls with a roast inside, including gravy. The pork one came with stuffing, too. IIRC they usually had 3 to choose from, always inc. chicken.

I’m not sneering, I’m being realistic.

The reason seaside towns are all full of the same things is because that’s what sells and has long-term staying power. Yes, there’ll be the odd town that does a roaring trade in vegan food or Vietnamese meals, but in general people at the beach want fish and chips, bacon rolls, seafood, sandwiches and ice cream.

I live in a very small northern seaside town and we’ve all kinds of different places start up over the years, including vegetarian, pizza, hot waffles etc. and while they all make money in the summer, trade dies off as soon as September comes and they close.

I live in a wealthy area. what works is a small cafe selling homemade gluten free and normal cakes and sandwiches and pasty's . It's not cheap £4.50 for a slab of cake. But some of the ingredients are even home grown eg apples in the apple cake. They actively don't want more customers as the demand is so high . They have one indoor table and the rest is out door seating which is handily provided by the council as it is a leisure area.

From what I can see it is hard demanding work . The cafe is closed over winter and days off are are allocated to baking and prep.

Cone of chips with lots of topping choices.

I go to the seaside for good fish and chips . Can get tapas if Korean food in the cities

see - pizza, sandwiches, ice cream cones, battered fish, cakes, baps . . .

They all sound gorgeous. I'm allergic to all of them, and I'm not at all unusual in that. The gluten free place in our small town always has people in the café but also has people coming from miles away to stock their freezers.

Their stuff is good, people without allergies or sensitivities enjoy them too.

We go to the seaside all the time and spend a fortune on fish and chips and they’re nearly always disappointing. We go in all weathers and I would love to be able to get a hot sarnie like beef, gammon etc with stuffing. I also think if you were doing chips with gravy / mushy peas / curry sauce cheaper than the chippies then you would get a lot of people in that want the chips with loads of salt and vinegar by the sea feeling whilst saving money because inevitably the kids eat 4 mouthfuls and the rest goes in the bin. If you’re wanting to do something different I’m always looking for noodles / Asian food but I’m not sure it’s what I would want at the seaside.

Simple and easy to eat stuff. Toasties, breakfast sandwiches, hot roast baps like pork and apple, beef and onion, chicken and stuffing.

There are plenty of Indian restaurants in our seaside town. Loads of coffee shops too.

The one that seems to do really well is an ice cream parlour that also sells to other cafes and does events.

loaded jacket potatoes 🥔, would definitely visit regularly

I agree, when it’s busy there’s often nowhere to sit so people want things they can eat standing. I love different foods and consider myself a bit of a foodie but at the seaside I’ve usually decided before I get there that I’m having chips (don’t eat them usually and consider it a treat)

I would plan food that can be sold out of a pretty / funky looking van. Something eye catching that looks good on the sea front. And can be moved about to follow the crowds throughout the year. You could also then sell at festivals or things like Christmas markets in the winter / pumpkin patches in the autumn etc.

In the summer, maybe good quality gelato in many different flavours, that you can customise with many different toppings. Or fro-yo where you can pick the flavour it’s made into from a huge list and it gets made to order in front of you.

then as the seasons change and weather gets colder you can change to things like flavoured coffees, waffles, mulled wine etc.

personally I love Deep South bbq food and I think there’s a market for this type of cooking at a seaside town where people are looking for something filling they can eat with their hands, that’s tasty, and fairly mainstream. But it would need a proper set up and I don’t think could be sold out of a truck, therefore a much harder model to make work.

If you’re going to be open nine months of the year you’ll need to provide warming food for most of it. A bit more detail might help narrow things down. Are you northern or southern? What’s your client profile? Holidaymakers or cold water swimmers? Location and venue, can people sit around or are you thinking of a walk up cart like a New York bagel or hot dog stand?

Importantly, how much money do people
spend in your area?